Sports stars can help fight battle of bulge

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We should not underestimate the role of sport in beating Australia's obesity epidemic, write Andrew Demetriou, James Sutherland and Lindsay Cane.

You may have read that Australia's premier sporting bodies - the Australian Football League, Cricket Australia and Netball Australia - have formed a partnership called the Sports Alliance and made an unprecedented "sporting declaration" to governments nationwide to help fight childhood obesity.

The Sports Alliance has made a multimillion-dollar financial commitment and will provide up to 1000 stars as ambassadors to help promote healthy eating and the importance of exercise and activity to schoolchildren throughout Australia.

Six months ago we decided to play a leadership role after identifying obesity as an undeclared epidemic in Australia. More than 1 million children have been classified as overweight or obese. Within six years, at least 60 per cent of adult Australians will be overweight or obese, according to government estimates.

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Our view is that sport can play a significant role, particularly given that 40 per cent of children aged five to 14 are missing out on sporting activities outside school hours.

Our plan is to intervene at a critical time in the obesity life cycle. Scientific evidence shows the association between obesity and disease begins early in life and the most important long-term consequence of childhood obesity is its persistence into adulthood.

Previously, numerous agencies have developed independent, isolated programs to tackle this problem. Commonwealth and state departments of health, education, family services and sport have established initiatives from their own perspectives. But the growing trends in obesity prove that these campaigns have largely failed.

We will also encourage parents and children to burn calories through traditional activities such as kick-to-kick.

A national plan is required to make a major impact. We believe our "sporting declaration" - where Cricket Australia, the AFL and Netball Australia have contributed $9 million to form a partnership with governments - is a world first from sporting bodies.

It will help curb childhood obesity through after-school programs that promote physical activity, teamwork and healthy nutrition - not just sport.

Star players such as James Hird and Liz Ellis will spend an afternoon at a school to promote healthy choices from the tuckshop at lunchtime, speak to the school assembly on the importance of diet, and deliver take-home messages for the rest of the family.

They will also engender enthusiasm at after-school activities, founded on the philosophies of the highly successful AFL Auskick, Netball Australia's Fun Net and Netta programs, and Cricket Australia's junior development initiatives.

We have formed the Sports Alliance because cricket, netball and football support the largest number of grassroots participants in Australian sport - with about 2 million people playing every week. We have traditionally shared facilities nationwide.

Our volunteer army of coaches, umpires, scorers, administrators, parents and friends is estimated at more than 3 million people.

These Australians not only support their network of players but provide the social capital that helps many clubs, communities and country towns survive.

We want to make this level of support and infrastructure available to help fight the epidemic of obesity, in collaboration with federal and state governments.

An important element will be the development of social capital to ensure that increased activity and nutritional education are sustained in the future. Community cricket, footy and netball clubs will be linked to the program to provide a natural pathway to continued participation in community sport and other activities.

Obesity is a national problem that requires a bipartisan response. Prime Minister John Howard last week delivered the first formal response from the Government to the "sporting declaration". We welcome his $90 million commitment to the after-school care programs. The Federal Opposition has also responded positively, as have numerous premiers, including Victoria's Steve Bracks.

A more questioning view has emerged from the Bluearth Institute. According to Age columnist Gregory Hywood (on this page on Thursday last week): "The trouble, according to Bluearth, is that the issue is much broader than sport - it's about understanding the importance of activity generally."

Fair enough. We recognise that the battle to change behavioural patterns at a time when people have been conditioned to an increasingly sedentary society will have to be fought on numerous fronts. To this end, we will also encourage parents and children to burn up calories through simple, traditional activities such as kick-to-kick, backyard cricket or netting a goal.

However, the contribution sport can make in an organised or informal fashion in tackling obesity should not be underestimated.

As the United Nations declared last year, sport provides a range of important benefits that can pass unrecognised: "The practice of sport is vital to the holistic development of young people, fostering their emotional health and building valuable social connections. Not only do physical education programs promote physical activity; there is evidence that such programs correlate to improved academic performance."

Andrew Demetriou is chief executive of the AFL, James Sutherland is chief executive of Cricket Australia, and Lindsay Cane is chief executive of Netball Australia.